heartharmony.com.au

Many people believe that you have to be the best in your field to be successful.This sets you up for major stress and a lot of disappointment.  It also makes for situations where business goals are written down as  “to be the best in the world (insert business here)” – which serves as a demotivator to employees and generates a “ho hum” response from clients.

The good news is you don’t have to be the best to succeed – otherwise all of those kids who were Dux’s of High School would have taken over the world by now.

If you think seriously about it there is ever only going to be one “best in the field” at any given time. If we let that stop us there would only be one painter in the world, one footballer and one stockbroker. All the rest would say “ah well – I am not going to be the best so I may as well do something else”.

We know that isn’t true. There are thousands of successful painters, hundreds of A-league footballers all making a mint, and thousands of professional stockbrokers. There’s room enough for all of them to make a successful living.

So cut yourself some slack. All you need to be is one of the best in your field, or at least be known as one of the best in your field. You don’t have to be perfect – you just need to be known to be better than most of your competition.

Someone once told me that you have to be a better marketer of what you do, than a doer of what you do. I am not so sure that I fully agree with that sentiment. I personally believe marketing and professionalism go hand in hand. There’s no point in being the inventor of the world’s best mouse trap if no one knows about it.

You need to balance both sides of the equation for success. You just don’t need to be the world’s best at doing it. There … doesn’t that feel better?

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – Freelance Writer